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Is anyone longing for an outdoor adventure? (We thought so.) Then join us via Zoomon Wednesday, May 13, when adventuress Corinne Burt will tantalize us with stories and photos of an epic bicycle trip that led her from the Arctic Ocean to the Panama Canal.

In the winter of 2018-19, Corinne was living and working in Bend, Oregon, when a late-season blizzard snowed her in for four days. While bored and surfing the Internet, she came across an international bicycle touring company (TDA Global Cycling) that offers off-the-beaten-path cycling tours all over the planet. TDA was offering a supported bicycle tour from North to South through nine countries in North America. Corinne signed up.

Born and raised on the East Coast, Corinne moved to California for college and graduate school and never looked back. After an unsatisfying five-year stint practicing law in San Francisco, Corinne worked as a horse trainer and horsemanship instructor in Sonoma and the East Bay for 20 years. Most recently, Corinne has worked as a real estate professional in California and Oregon.

In addition to her professional pursuits, Corinne has taken numerous courses at the United Bicycle Institute in Ashland, Oregon. She knows just enough about bicycles to be dangerous.

Our May gathering will be conducted virtually through Zoom due to the current shelter-in-place restrictions. Please watch for a Zoom meeting invitation via email in the days prior to the May 13 meeting.

The upcoming Census 2020 calls attention to the changing demographics of California and the United States. California is now considered a “majority-minority” state, one in which Whites are fewer than 50 percent of the population and traditional minorities make up more than half. Of those minorities, Latinos represent the largest component. In fact, Latinos are projected to represent nearly 30 percent of the total U.S. population between 2050-2060.

What does this mean for our national economy, prosperity, and political and business leadership? We welcome Dr. Mara Perez to help us understand these demographic shifts and their impacts.

Dr. Perez is Founder and Principal of Latino Futures, a consulting and think-tank project focused on fostering Latino success and prosperity as a means of assuring America’s future success and prosperity. Her strategic program, entitled “The Roadmap to Latino Prosperity,” creates a framework to build Latino socio-economic prosperity, arguing that this is a national imperative as the population undergoes dramatic racial and ethnic shifts over the coming decades.

Dr. Perez earned a PhD in Sociology from the University of Chicago. She is a Research Fellow at Dominican University of California concentrating on Latino entrepreneurship, and at LeaderSpring Center, focusing on leadership in the non-profit sector and women of color in the tech sector. Her publications have appeared in many prestigious books and journals, including the Stanford Social Innovation Review and Latin Business Today. She is currently a member of the Board of Directors of the Marin Health Center (formerly Marin General Hospital).

Please join us on March 11 for Dr. Perez’s talk describing how we can imagine and create a prosperous future for the nation by investing in the Latino community.

What sparks a passion for pastoral service in the context of police enforcement? And what drives it for 25 years?

Reverend Jan Heglund will join us on February 12 to talk about her extraordinary career in chaplaincy for Bay Area law enforcement and service groups, including her current roles as Chaplain for the San Rafael Police Department and the San Francisco Division of the FBI.

Reverend Jan was ordained at Grace Cathedral in 1994. Over the years, she served at churches in Mill Valley and Sausalito. Law enforcement caught her interest in 1995, when she began as Chaplain for the San Rafael Police Department.

She served at 9/11 and was the chaplain at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia. In 2001, she was a founding member of the First Responders Support Network, a retreat for law enforcement personnel who are suffering from PTSA.

She also helped to found Project Grace, an organization that supports women who have lost a child.

She was recently called to help at the Gilroy mass shooting.

Reverend Jan has received many, many awards and honors. Among them are the Outstanding Clergy of the Year Award from NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) in 2010; the Making a Difference for Women Award from Marin Soroptimists in 2008; the Martin Luther King, Jr. Humanitarian Award (2013); and the Marin Women’s Hall of Fame, YWCA.